Attack on Prekaz - Misplaced Pages

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Attack on Prekaz

Part of the Kosovo War

Date	5–7 March 1998 (2 days)
Location	Prekaz, Kosovo, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Result	Jashari family eliminated. Apart from KLA fighters, numerous civilians killed. Escalation of conflict.

Belligerents

Yugoslav Army

Serbian police

Special Anti-Terrorist Unit

Kosovo Liberation Army

Commanders and leaders

Goran Radosavljević

Sreten Lukić

Adem Jashari †

Hamëz Jashari †

Strength

100 policemen

28 militants

Casualties and losses

Two policemen killed

Seven policemen wounded

58 Kosovo Albanians killed, including eighteen women and ten children

v t e Kosovo War
Prelude Attacks on Likoshane and Çirez Prekaz Wartime events UNSCR 1160 Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush Lapušnik prison camp Belaćevac Mine Summer offensive Ljubenić mass graves Lođa 1st Albanian–Yugoslav border Klečka killings Orahovac Junik Lake Radonjić massacre Glodjane UNSCR 1199 Gornje Obrinje massacre UNSCR 1203 UNSCR 1207 Battle of Jezerc 2nd Albanian–Yugoslav border 3rd Albanian–Yugoslav border Panda Bar massacre Podujevo Ambush near Suva Reka Račak massacre Allied Force F-117A shoot-down Novi Sad blitz Bela Crkva massacre Krusha massacres Suva Reka massacre Izbica massacre Drenica massacres Pastasel massacre 4th Albanian-Yugoslav border Battle of Košare Battle of Paštrik Grdelica Gjakova Hajla Meja ambush RTS headquarters Meja massacre Yugoslav Ministry of Defence Lužane bus bombing Varvarin bridge bombing Vushtrri massacre Niš cluster bombing Chinese embassy Koriša bombing Ćuška massacre Aftermath Pristina airport Prizren Zhegër Staro Gracko massacre Gnjilane killings Ranilug 2000 unrest Podujevo bus bombing Goraždevac murders Aspects War crimes Mass graves: Batajnica mass graves, Rudnica mass grave, Ugljare mass grave, Mališevo mass grave Destruction of heritage (Albanian · Serbian)

Kosovo War

Prelude

Wartime events

Aftermath

Aspects

War crimes
Mass graves: Batajnica mass graves, Rudnica mass grave, Ugljare mass grave, Mališevo mass grave
Destruction of heritage (Albanian · Serbian)

The Attack on Prekaz, also known as the Prekaz massacre, was an operation led by the Special Anti-Terrorism Unit of Serbia on 5 March 1998. Police said they were trying to capture "terrorists"; according to Amnesty International, all evidence suggests that the attack was not intended to apprehend armed Albanians, but "to eliminate the suspects and their families". During the operation, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader Adem Jashari and his brother, Hamëz were killed, along with more than 60 other family members, including women and children.

Background

Adem and Hamëz Jashari were members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a militant group of ethnic Albanians who sought independence of Kosovo from Yugoslavia. Adem Jashari was responsible for organizing the first armed, political organization, in Srbica (Skënderaj in Albanian) in 1991.

On 28 February 1998, a firefight erupted between Albanian militants and a Serbian police patrol in the small village of Likošane. Four Serbian policemen were killed and several were injured. The KLA militants, one of whom was Adem Jashari, escaped. Subsequently, Serbian police killed thirteen people in a nearby household. Later that same day, Serbian police attacked the neighbouring village of Ćirez and subsequently killed 26 Albanians. However, the Albanian militants who had incited the violence managed to escape and the police decided to move in on Adem Jashari and his family. A long-time radical hardliner in the Drenica valley, Jashari decided for his fighters to stay at home, instructed them fight to the last man.

Operation

On 5 March 1998, the KLA launched another attack on a police patrol in Donji Prekaz, which caused the Serbian police to seek retribution, according to the official Serbian public report. After the second attack, the police prepared a brutal response for the Jasharis. They started hunting down local KLA militants who were forced to retreat to Jashari's compound in the same village. Yugoslav policemen surrounded the group and invited them to surrender, while urging all other persons to clear the premises. The police further alleged that they gave them two hours to comply. Within the given deadline, dozens of civilians complied with the order and dispersed in safety from the stronghold. According to the police, after the two-hour deadline had expired, Adem Jashari, his brother and most of his family-members, however still refused to comply and remained inside the compound. After a tense verbal stand-off, according to official Serbian statements, Jashari's group responded by firing on the police using automatic weapons as well as mortars, hand grenades and snipers, killing two and injuring three policemen. In the ensuing violence, the Yugoslav police killed more than sixty people, including both Jashari brothers. The only survivor was Besarta Jashari, Hamëz Jashari's daughter. She claimed that the policemen had "threatened her with a knife and ordered her to say that her uncle (Adem Jashari) had killed everyone who wanted to surrender." Goran Radosavljević, a major in the Serbian Interior Ministry, claimed that "Adem Jashari used women, children and the elderly as hostages..."; on the other hand, general Nebojša Pavković said: "It was a normal policing action against a well-known criminal. It was successful. The other details I don't remember".

Evidence gathered later showed that the attack wasn't intended to apprehend of armed Albanian "militants"; rather, the attack was to eliminate them and their families. Other houses of Jashari family members were also attacked by the police as well as the residential compound of the Lushtaku family. In response, the UN security council turned to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter without authorizing the final measure of the chapter which was military intervention. Mortars were fired on the houses, and snipers shot at those who fled.

Burial

The local Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms was contacted by the police to collect the bodies, but when the council requested documentation about the deceased none was made public. According to the Council, the police had moved the corpses to a Pristina morgue before returning them to the Drenica area. On 9 March, the police warned that if the bodies weren't buried by their families they would be buried by the authorities, while the families requested autopsies to be performed.

On 10 March, the police got a bulldozer and dug a mass grave near Prekaz, and buried the bodies, ten of which were still unidentified at that time. Families had hoped that autopsies might be performed, but a group of doctors from Pristina, the families of the deceased, representatives from the Catholic Church, the Muslim community and international human rights organizations were denied access to the area. The heads of the Serbian police accused the organizations that they had smuggled weapons into the region in the past.

Aftermath

The Prekaz attack led to a rapid increase of the KLA's popularity among ethnic-Albanians and village militias were formed in many parts of Kosovo. After the event, Adem Jashari himself was portrayed as a "terrorist" in the Yugoslav media, while the Albanian media depicted him as a "freedom fighter". The casualties of the attack would be described as the fall of "martyrs" in the Albanian media, while in the Serbian media they were reported to be "collateral effects of the fight against terrorism". On 13 March, about 50,000 people demonstrated against the attacks, while on 15 March, the Catholic Church called for masses to be held throughout the region, after which about 15,000 people demonstrated in Pristina.

In late March 1999, more than 100,000 people marched in eight American cities and European capitals to protest the attack. Eventually, events spiralled out of control and the Kosovo War ensued.